The world's largest cruise shipowner Carnival Corporation posted a USD 4,4 billion loss for 2020-Q2 (second quarter) or USD 3,30 per share. Financial market analysts were forecasting a loss of USD 1,76 per share. Revenue plummeted 85% (to USD 700 million) missing estimates of ~USD 738 million.
In its earnings release, the cruise company announced it was unable to provide any guidance because it was “unable to definitively predict when it will return to normal operations”.
Carnival said that once it resumes operations fleetwide, it would only be after collaboration with government and health officials and that it would be in a phased manner.
The company added half of the passengers affected by cancellations so far had requested full refunds, with the rest prepared to rebook. New bookings made in May 2020 for cruises in 2021 were down in comparison with last year but were showing signs of improvement.
The bad news from the corporation comes a day after NCLH-Norwegian said it was canceling summer 2020 cruises by extending the fleetwide suspension through October.
It has not been clarified how, precisely, cruise lines like Carnival will prevent COVID from spreading once cruising resumes. However, all major cruise lines said they were working in conjunction with the CDC and other authorities.